Tidbinbilla

After boxing day I took the in laws to Tidbinbilla to check out the natural environment and wildlife.

 These two that we found at Stromlo were pretty scary!

 The view from the lookout.

 Edwina the Emu played cricket with us during lunch.

 We were terrified that she thought the ball was one of her eggs but it turned out she just liked cricket. She was really friendly and made a point of going up to every new visitor to say hi. The reputation of other emus must have preceded her because most people were terribly frightened of her and all she wanted was to say hello. All be it at very close range!

 We had a walk around the koala park. Basically is is an area that they say you may catch a glimpse of a koala in this vicinity. They had just imported quite a few so we got lucky. I've been before and the only thing I got was a crink in the neck! This guy was 5 meters from the track at Nathan's head height. Those cute grey ears of his were flapping like mad listening to the rubbish those Rickard boys were spouting!

At the entrance there were several Mummy and baby koalas so my baby climbed on my back to show them we were friendly. The koalas really didn't care at all!

And now for the flowers!

Every year at Floriade we hold the annual Rickard Photography competition. I think everybody else who goes to Floriade does the same because every person walks around looking at it through their viewfinders! This year was interesting because not only did you have massive telephonic lenses on big arse cameras but also smart phone cameras and my personal favourite the ipad! Seriously people were walking around with their ipads up in front of their faces! (Just quietly on one occasion that person was Ryan, with his new tablet!)

This year I was fascinated by the poppy's. The first visit they weren't really flowering.

 But by the third visit they were stunning!

But i found their un-flowering form to be the most interesting.

 They remind me of something hairy and bally! Gross!

 And the way they unfurl! Amaze balls I mean amazing!!!

 

 This image captures floriade for the boys! This is what they think it is all about! Matthew took this photo.

 I was also interested in the yet to flower tulips too. They looked really interesting on mass like that.

 

I love the tulips the best but this daffodil is a close second.

 

 Oh but you cant beat these hairy tulips!

 This is my entry into the photo comp! A white Hyacinth.

 

 This is the Forrest kids entry.

 This is Matthew's.

 This is Ryan's taken through the spit filter on his tablet! I am pretty sure this shot and the filter used is going to take off in photography circles around the globe!

 Another Matthew entry.

 A Ryan entry with a slightly cleaner filter.

This is what the majority of entries looked like! A whopping great big shadow over some random flower!

 

But this is our winner! Taken by Benjamin Rickard.

 

 He wins a packet of smarties for his efforts!

(Or he would have had I not eaten them first before deciding the winner!)

Floriade with family and friends

We have been to Floriade three times already this year! And i still need to visit once more on the last day to buy Mum her discounted t-towel!

 The weather has been glorious in Canberra so far these holidays so we have been making the most of it! First of all we took Uncle Brenty who had never been despite living in Canberra for a while!

 I've taken five kids, by myself and didn't lose one of them!

 I've taken my Grandmother who has been wanting to see it for years!

 Grumpy and Nanna Bev loved it, although she kept exclaiming how there never used to be this many people visiting it when she lived here!

 

 

 Grumpy wondered how they knew he would be visiting today because the sign on the organ says "Why not take a photo with the man with a big organ!" So he insisted on having his photo taken!

 There were hundreds of perspex cranes hung in the trees when we went on the Sunday but when we went back the following Wednesday they had all disappeared!

 Three garden gnomes in a flower bed!

Picture perfect.....for five monsters!

 

 However the frame is not one size fits all!

 We had to have our photo taken with the boat of flowers that Ben's friend Alyssa help plant on a school excursion with the green team.

 The view from the Ferris wheel which I took all five kids on and I was guessing it was because there were so many of us in the carriage was why it swung so much and most of us were petrified the whole time!

 Hardly any people there on the Wednesday unlike the previous Sunday when I had taken nan and Mum and there were millions and you could hardly move!

The highlight of Floriade so far was Ben being called up to help by a street performer. When the guy asked for helpers he asked all of the ugly, naughty people who wanted to help and Ben was the most enthusiastic of all the ugly, naughty kids so he got picked! He was quite entertaining, when the guys asked him where he lived he told the whole crowd our exact street address including phone number! So whilst i have the know your own address thing down pat with him we may have to work on privacy issues!

All in all we have all loved Floriade this year. Mainly because we have got to share it with some lovely people!

Just for Mum

Look Mum there is water in Lake George! This was taken on our trip home from Brisbane in July but you can definately see water where there was once sheep grazing land!

Science Scramble 2012

Last year we did the science scramble with Aunty Teesh and had a blast! This year Teesh is too busy gallivanting around Europe with her parents to do it so I dragged Nathan along instead!

 We jumped straight into it this weekend, starting at the Canberra visitors centre, with some swimmer dude in the background. Maybe next year he can come down and do the science scramble with us instead of playing games in London!

 The first stop was Parliament House to answer a question about a female engineer! Talking about females we saw they had portraits up of the first female politician, first female senators etc. but as yet hadn't added the portrait of the first female prime minister! (Unless it was somewhere else and we didn't see it!)

 We had a quick look around and added it to the must come back and do properly list!

 We whipped around The Old Parliament House Rose Garden to answer some horticulture questions!

 From there we listened to our own echoes just down the road at the Magna Carta Monument. Three little boys did not enjoy that at all! Shouting out words like penis! And poo! And boogers!

 A very quick stop in at  the National Library and Questacon. Did you know the National Library has a globe that spins all by itself!

 We lifted the marble ball outside Questacon ourselves and found it weighed 633kgs!

 A short drive away was the Galleries where we got to have some fun with my favourite sculpture. Ryan is spinning it on his finger!

 Ben is holding it with his fingertips.

 But Mummy made a spit bubble! Gross!

 The next morning it was up and at it again early. Only this time we took our bikes and rode to all the points along the lake.

They tried to weigh anchor but it was waaayyy too heavy!

 At the Captain Cook Monument they answered a question on astronomy and then pondered the great waters of Lake Burley Griffin.

 Nice Bums!

 Along the foreshore of the lake is what is called the Australian of the Year walk. The bollards that the boys are standing next to are placed on musical stave lines and all the bollard read as a musical note that makes the national anthem. Cool hey! I learnt that when we did a cruise on HMS Jenny at Floriade one year.

 Now you may think this is just a photo of boys in silly poses but this was a question about the War Memorial in the background. Which means that this is the boys posing as soldiers! Ryan is throwing a grenade, Matthew is shooting a rifle and Ben has a bazooka! Of course! Only mothers of three boys would be able to decipher this photo!

 We had a quick stop for smoko! Thank goodness Nathan had thought to bring a hot chocolate because the breeze on the lake was chilly!

 After a little rest it was back on the bike for a beautiful ride through the sculpture garden. One of my favourite places in Canberra. Nathan tested the boys by asking how many cones they saw. Matthew counted the correct number of cones where as Ryan and Ben counted the number of shapes, which was two cones together, so they were half right!

 Last stop was at the site of their future tattoos! A southern cross at the Munnari Artwork.

Once again we had a great time doing the science scramble. It felt like it was heaps shorter this year, which Nathan was very happy with! If you live in Canberra get out and do it you still have time left, entries close on the 15th October!